Marco Bonitta (Italy head coach): We played today's match very carefully because it was held in Japan, so we felt a lot of pressure. In order to win the championship in this tournament we have to keep our mental condition.

Nadia Centoni (Italy): Today's game was a very important one for us because we had to get back our own rhythm. That is the point we had to overcome. In the third set sometimes we did not play well but we managed to win the game.

Simona Rinieri (Italy captain): We had to play against Japan's quick play but we could display good defence, and that is why we were successful. Today's game was different from yesterday's against Brazil, especially in the third set, because we were almost even.

Shoichi Yanagimoto (Japan head coach): I thought our serve-reception would be a vital point in this match, but we had many errors. That is one of the reasons why we lost this game. The other reason is that Italy was successful in attacking, especially in the first two sets. When we play against a stronger team it proves that we are very easily defeated.

Yoshie Takeshita (Japan captain): In the first two sets we could not get enough points from serve-reception. In the third set we put emphasis on defence but we could not turn the flow of the game.

Saori Kimura (Japan): We started with strong determination but our serve-reception was not good and we did not have our own rhythm.

Miyuki Takahashi (Japan): We could not adjust to the strong serve of the Italian team.